28 August 2009

Well, I just found out today that my paper was accepted for publication! It will be published in this fall's BYU Inquiry Journal! I'm so grateful for all of the encouragement I've gotten while working on it this summer. This project has been in the works more than a year, before I even went to Jordan! Of course, I had never imagined that I would be able to get this paper published as a result, but I have been very blessed! I will admit though, it feels pretty good to have all of this hard work pay off in a big way!

04 August 2009

I had a phone conference last week and if we get permission from our professor, my senior thesis (co-written with Krystyna Hales) is going to get published!!! YAY!!! I'm SO excited! I just really have to get busy on the revisions because it is due in a couple weeks.

I also had an exciting/scary realization that this last Sunday was my last Fast Sunday in the United States for the rest of this year! AAAAHHHHH. I can't even believe it! The summer has gone by SO FAST! First there was the Family Reunion, then setting up Erika's classroom, and then working for the last couple of months with only 7 days off so far. WHEW. I'm SO excited for Jerusalem! However I also know that things aren't going to slow down until after Christmas. When I get home from Jerusalem in December, my brother Logan will be back from his mission and there to greet me at the airport! Somehow I know that a couple weeks of break in between semesters will not be nearly enough time for the two of us to catch up on the last two years of our lives, but I know we're certainly going to try!! And then of course Winter semester I get to once again live with the best bestie ever and finish up my undergrad years at BYU! No rest for the weary, but certainly lots of exciting things for me to look forward to in the next few months!

So I haven't updated in a while, but I have been SO busy! TUrns out I WAS transferred up here to Salt Lake City. This is my second week up here, and we're still digging digging digging. Our site is just immediately west of the SLC Airport. And it turns out, our dead end road is also both a popular street racing road AND a high traffic area for prostitution (as explained to us by the Airport Police who cam to find out what we were doing). Apparently the Control Tower of the airport as a camera aimed at us... Just A LITTLE creepy. All of us are wondering how many times we've mooned the cameras in search of our perfect potty place. haha

Up until the end of Friday, I was a recorded for the in-field lab analysis and the cartography team (as we like to call ourselves). Then my next assignment was to dig a 1x1m unit by myself. Which wouldn't have been a terrible undertaking except that almost my entire pit was gravel embedded in hard packed dried mud. NOT FUN. But I finished the square early Monday morning. Next I was assigned to dig a 1x2m unit. My objective: to take the square a little more than 2m down. The is going to be one BIG HOLE! But it's a good thing I have all week to dig it!

The great thing about being in SLC is mostly just having civilization around us, and having options for food and entertainment. We went to Park City and rode the Zipline, the Coaster, and the Alpine Slide. We've been to Temple Square and the Gateway Mall. I've eaten at the Cheescake Factory, Tucanos, Red Iguana, Happy Sumo (where I ate Sushi for the first time!), California Pizza Kitchen, and Jonny Carinos. I was also able to attend the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House with Erika and John who came up to visit me. I've been shopping at the Gateway, Walmart, and Albertsons. I'm spent some time with friends and family in Provo. I have cell phone service ALL THE TIME! Basically what I'm trying to say is that I L-O-V-E civilization, and particularly SLC. It's such a nice change of pace from Delta!